2008 Woodie Awards
Heavy competition
For 11 weeks, RSA challenges 10 students to lose weight in "NU's Biggest Loser."
Julia Gall
Issue date: 2/28/07 Section: The Inside
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With determination on his face, Jose De La Rosa pulls hard on the cables of a rowing machine at the Marino Center.
While typically a stranger to the gym, the senior finance and accounting major is adopting a healthier lifestyle as part of his participation in the Resident Student Association's (RSA) "NU's Biggest Loser" weight-loss competition. For 11 weeks, De La Rosa and nine other contestants will compete for points in various physical challenges, as well as dieting and working out weekly. The winner will receive a new wardrobe to suit his or her new physique, among other prizes.
But the 217-pound De La Rosa said winning isn't what's most important.
"I think it's more a desire to lose weight than win a competition," he said. Encouraged by friends to enter the competition, he said he thinks he was chosen because of the "substance" he put into the application.
As part of a New Year's resolution to become healthier, De La Rosa said he already began making changes in diet and exercise before entering the competition. However, the program helps him stay focused.
"It was hard to put the gym into my daily routine," he said.
His weekly schedule now involves working out at the Marino Center every day, including two group fitness workouts each week with all contestants in the competition. De La Rosa's trainers, Ashley Penfield and Blake Sama, have come up with different stages of exercising properly.
"Before the program I'd overwork myself and then would go home and be too tired," he said, explaining why he didn't hit the gym before.
Specifically catered to each contestant, the trainers have slightly different routines for everyone.
"They took our heart rate with EKGs to see what we could handle," De La Rosa said. "They're training me how to pace myself so I don't overwork [my body]."
Yesterday De La Rosa competed in the "Iditarod," which is co-sponsored by RSA and Campus Recreation and includes rowing for 2,000 meters, biking for two miles and running a mile on the treadmill at a 5 percent incline. The 10 contestants were split into two teams.
"I'm not that confident, but I know I can hold my own," he said before the competition. "I'm confident with all my teammates. We're there for each other, and that's the main part."
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